Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-05-05
The Wings of 1910.

| CINCINNATI Graphic News the following
description of the memorable campaign
of 1910:
Very soon after the nomination of
Harrison and Tyler, Democratic editor
in Baltimore made some foolish remarks
in his paper about the unfitness of Gen.
Harrison for the Office of President as
compared with Van Buren, and added
something like this: Harrison can live
in his log cabin at North Bend and
drink hard cider out of gourd the bal
aDce of his life, but he never will be
President" This remark was at once
seized upon and made the shibboleth of
the campaign. The Wings declared that
it was an insult to every pioneer and
farmer of the country. A feeling of in
tense indignation was worked up, whicn
resolved itself into political storm, a
hurricane, a tornado. a cyclone, or any
thing else you may please to call it. Ex-
citement ran wild, reason was dethroned,
argument was ignored, explanations
we're unheeded, the poor Democrats
were overwhelmed. Log cabins and
hard cider, coon skins and linsey- wool+
sey shirts and wamusses became the
and log cabin song books furnished the
literature of the campaign, and "hip,
hip, hurrabT were the watchwords of
the hour. If Whig speeches we're made,
they were chiefly confined to the awful
extravaganza of Van Buren's admins
tration. 1t was said that be slept on
French bedsteads, and slipped his tea
and his soup from gold spoons (Which
were bought, however, during MOnroe's
ADMINISTRATOR, and that the expenses
Of the Government bad run up to the
enormous sum of seventy millions a
yearl These and many other terrible
charges were Illuminated in a speech de-
livered in Congress by Hon. Chas. Ogle,
of Pennsylvania, which was circulated
by the car load all over the country.
The campaign opened at Columbus on
the 22d of February, 1910, when the
greatest mass meeting ever witnessed in
this country took place, to which the
writer was an eyewitness. Being then
engaged as legislative reporter on Me-
dary's Statesman, l was detailed with
others, to write up the grand pageant.
But DO imagination could paint and no
pen could describe it. The fifty thOu>
sand or more people, who dropped into
Columbus on that memorable morning,
came from every nook and corner of the
State; they came In log cabins, dressed
as old pioneers; and coon skins and
gourds, and barrels of good old hard ci-
der" were conspicuous objects inside
and outside of every cabin. Some of
these cabins were fifty feet long, and
were fitted up like a boarding house,
with cooking and sleeping apartments.
and we're drawn by ten or twenty hors
es. and each horse carried rider, dress
ed to suit the mOmentOus occasion.
There was no organization and no speak
ing to amount to anything, the whole
faffng, and Singing. It s'tts was thiss singing
that did the work. Some of the songs |
shall never forget. They rang in my
ears wherever L went, morning, noon
and night, during the whole of that cam
paign. Men, women and children did
nothing but sing. 1t worried, annoyed.
dumbfounded the Democrats, but there
was no use trying to escape. 1t was a
ceaseless torrent of music, still begin
ming, never ending. If Democrat tried
to speak, argue, or answer anything
said or done, he was only ssluted with
fresh deluge of music. If Democrat
said that John Tyler was no Wing, the
Wings would join in a deTisive laugh
and song. which ended with the chorus:
"And we'll vote for Tyler, therefore,
Without why or wherefore"
When compelled to listen to such ar
guments, many of the old hard she'll
Democrats would become angry, but this
onlypleased the Whigs,and they rubbed
it in" the harder. The most popular
song of the day was one about "Tippe-
canoe and Tyler, too" one verse of which
shall quote from memory:
''Oh, what has caused this great commotion,
Motion, motion, the country through
1t is the ball rollin' on
For TippecsnOe and Tyler, too,
For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,
And with them we'll beat little Van,
Van, Van, Van is used up man,
And with them we'll beat little Van.
Well, the BAwL, that was thus started
at Columbus, kept "rOllin' on" all over
the country. Van Buren, was badly
beaten, and Harrison and Tyler were
elected by an overwhelming majority OF
the popular, as well as the electoral,
vote of the country.
In one short month after his iHaugu-
ration, President Harrison died. and
John Tyler. by virtue Of the COnstitu-
ton, became President. Then came the
trouble between Tyler and the Wings.
Tylor was known to be opposed to
United States Bank, but the Wings, we'll
aware of his decided views on that SUBJ
ject, passed through both branches of
Congress measure which they were
pleased to call Fiscal Agency" and
which was nothing less than bank un-
der another name. President Tyler
promptly vetoed the agency" and gave
such clear and unanswerable reasons
for his action as to completely sever all
political ties and relations between him
and the party that elected him. He was
denounced as a traitor" even more vi
olently than ANDY" Johnson WAS in la
ter years. The Democrats stood by Ty+
Ter, because he planted himself fairly
and squarely on Democratic ground,
and from that time forward, during his
entire administration. John Tyler be-
slowed all his patronage upon, and gave
all his appointments to the Democrats,
and, indeed, the Democrats were as we'll
provided for as if their votes had placed
John Tyler in power.
q. AI,o